


Sweet

by queen_scribbles



Category: Pillars of Eternity
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-02-04
Updated: 2018-02-04
Packaged: 2019-03-13 13:00:17
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,962
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13571085
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/queen_scribbles/pseuds/queen_scribbles
Summary: Emiri tries her hand at baking in an attempt to cheer Kana up.





	Sweet

**Author's Note:**

> For prompt #20 Gift. Spoilers for Kana’s personal quest, if anyone’s still working through that. :)

They were all quiet as they trudged up the steps out of Od Nua, even Kana, which was unusual. _Especially_ Kana, which was downright unnerving. Emiri couldn’t really blame him; their hunt for Gabrannos and the Tanvii ora Toha had ended badly. And honestly, that felt like an understatement on par with saying her pirate masters had been unkind.

It wasn’t often you found your hopes and dreams literally smashed into teeny tiny pieces, though, so she struggled to figure the best response. Should she give him space for a while? Offer to listen? Try to make it better or let him work though on his own? Kana had been so nice to her since they begun traveling together, she wanted to help him in return. Emiri was so lost in thought she tripped over the last step up into the dungeons. Kana instinctively--wordlessly--grabbed her arm to steady her, letting go as soon as she had her balance.

“Thank you,” she smiled, but he just nodded, clearly lost in thought. _Who are you, and what have you done with Kana?_ The thought was a sarcastic one, but one she almost endorsed.

The waiting group of Leaden Key assassins on the other side of the door were just the icing on the cake of this truly awful afternoon. Emiri very nearly skipped trying to talk them down, but knew she’d second guess herself for weeks-- _maybe this group would have been the exception_ \--if she didn’t at least attempt diplomacy. 

They were not the exception. Even tired as they were, Emiri’s party made short work of the Leaden Key when they attacked. She stooped to search the bodies for anything useful, and by the time she straightened, Kana had slipped away. Emiri sighed and fiddled anxiously with her bracelet. _Giving him space it is, then._ Apparently she’d have to think of something else to cheer him up.

<<>>   <<<>>>   <<>>

She had plenty of time to do her thinking; they opted to spend a few days at Caed Nua, recovering from their venture into the Paths, before they resumed adventuring. It took until the third of those few days, but Emiri finally had an idea.

One that led to her being caught in the kitchen by Edér, covered in flour and squinting at the recipe as she attempted to puzzle out the cook’s spidery handwriting.

“Do I wanna know?” he asked with a laugh. Emiri wrinkled her nose and flicked flour at him.

 “I’m baking. Or... trying to. I’m having trouble reading the recipe,” she admitted sheepishly.

“Need some help?” Edér offered.

“Not if I’m pulling you away from something. I can manage. I think.”

“Nah, I’m free as a bird,” he said with a smile. He picked up the recipe and whistled. “No wonder you’re havin’ trouble reading this. Any particular reason you’re makin’ cookies? Or didja just want a snack?”

Emiri shook her head. “They’re for Kana. I wanna cheer him up. But I’m doubling the recipe, so there should be enough for everyone to have a couple.”

Edér nodded slowly. “Good idea. Poor guy’s takin’ the mess with Gan- Gabrannos an’ that tablet real hard.”

“I would be, too,” Emiri shrugged. “He’d been looking for that for _a year_ , for it to be crumbled dust in the end had to hurt.”

“‘Miri, if you’re doublin’, you need more butter,” Edér pointed out.

“Oh. Whoops.” She added the butter. “Good catch.”

“What I’m here for,” he grinned. “So you’re just tryin’ to cheer Kana up, huh? This isn’t ‘cause you’re sweet on him or anything?”

Emiri stared adamantly at the mixing bowl. “Yes.” then hastily clarified, “to the first, not the second. We’re friends and I wanna make him feel better. Definitely not sweet on him.”

 _Liar,_ laughed her brain as he cheeks burned and she thanked the gods Edér didn’t possess her abilities.

Still didn’t look like he believed her, though. “Sure. And cook’s alright with you takin’ over the kitchen?”

Emiri nodded and huffed hair out of her eyes. “I mean, it’s my keep. An’ we don’t have any visiting dignitaries to impress, so she said I can have it as long as I need. “

“Mm.” Edér watched her for a minute. “Don’t take this the wrong way, ‘Miri, but is this your first time baking?”

She grimaced and shot him a sheepish smile. “What gave me away?”

He pointed to the small measuring pitcher, white dusted along the rim. “That’s not what you use for flour. Also I know the recipe says a pinch of nutmeg, but that just means only a little. Not _literally_ a pinch.” He grinned and glanced at her hands. “Though I guess _you_ can just stick to a pinch, actually. It’ll work out.” A chuckle. “Maybe the person who wrote this recipe was an aumaua.”

“There are a lot in Rauatai,” Emiri giggled. “And we do love our sweets.” She resumed mixing the batter. “So... how do you know so much about baking?”

Edér shrugged, eyes twinkling mischievously as he rubbed a small glob of batter off her halo. “Man’s gotta eat.”

“So you mean you’ve been letting me argue with Sagani for _months_ about actually _cooking_ food before we eat it, while the whole time you knew how to cook?!” She flicked more flour at him.

“You’re assumin’ my cooking would be better than the alternative,” he pointed out with a grin. “Maybe I’m only good enough for myself.”

“Somehow I doubt that, but I’ll let it slide if you start melting the chocolate.”

“Deal.”

<<>> <<<>>> <<>>

In the end, the cookies were made largely without incident, aside from the first batch melding into one big cookie thanks to insufficient spacing. Emiri just laughed, separated them as they cooled, and kept that batch back to share. The rest were all spaced appropriately and turned out fine. Once they’d cooled, she piled half the cookies in a basket and went looking for Kana.

He was not easy to find. His room, the library, the adra pillars in the courtyard, all checked to no avail. She finally found him as the sun was starting to set, sitting by the fountain and staring pensively at the sun’s reflection in the water.

“Y’know, that’s almost as bad as looking at the sun itself,” she commented, sitting next to him and running her fingers through the water. “‘Specially when it’s this still.”

“Did you need something, Emiri?” He sounded tired. Defeated. She hated it.

“Actually, i brought you something. As a, um, gift.” Her face warmed ever so slightly and she prayed it wasn’t enough to be noticed as she set the basket between them. “I remembered how much you like the ones from my birthday, and, well, these are different, but still chocolate, so hopefully you’ll like them, too.”

Kana’s lips twitched in the barest, weakest attempt at a smile. “Chocolate is always good. What prompted this?”

Emiri shrugged and played with her hair. “Hoping to cheer you up, partially.”

“And what’s the rest of it?” he asked, finally looking up from the water.

“I just... you’ve been so sweet to me since... since we met,” she began, inexplicably nervous. _What are you afraid of? It’s **Kana** , for crying out loud._  “Helping me learn to read, the dancing lessons, always being there when I needed to talk. I appreciate all of it, so much.” She leaned forward and rested her hand on his arm. “I wanted to do something sweet for you in return. Cookies are perhaps a little more _literally_ sweet than I intended, but I’m also willing to listen, if you want to talk. I wish there had been more we could do. Or that just finding it was enough.”

“In a way... it is,” Kana admitted, taking a cookie and staring at it thoughtfully. He traced one fingertip over its surface as he spoke. “It’s enough for _me_ that it existed. That it was here, once. But... I spent so long looking for it as _proof_ ; something I could take back to the lore college, and for _that_ it’s as worthless as empty parchment.”

Emiri was quiet for a moment. She knew that feeling, hope answered with nothing. Finally, though, she squeezed his arm and said, “Don’t think about it like that, then. Think of everything we learned looking for it. We were the first people in _ **two thousand years** _ to go that far down into Od Nua. That’s something, isn’t it?”

“...Yes,” Kana said slowly, after a pause. He actually met her eye with the hesitant beginnings of a smile. “It is a great feat, isn’t it?” He sighed, the smile faltering. “It would be greater if we’d found what what we sought.”

“True,” Emiri agreed, shifting to trail her fingers through the fountain again. “But you must’ve been on the right path for the Leaden Key to come after you like they did. The threat their leader tossed at us; that we wouldn’t find anything because we’d be dead. To me, that means there _is_ something to find. Or, at least, they think there is. I think that’s worth pursuing, don’t you?”

“Normally I’d agree with you, but I had it wrong.” Kana sighed, gaze returning to the distorted reflection in the water. “There was no book of virtues. Nothing to advocate peace. So even if we _are_ on the right path, as you think, what waits at the end?”

“Answers, hopefully,” she said with a chuckle, flicking an arc of water over the grass and watching the droplets sparkle orange, pink, or purple in the sunset’s light. “For both of us. But there’s only one way to find out. Assuming you plan to stick around?” The possibility he might not only hit her as she said the words, and Emiri fought down a brief surge of panic.

“Of course,” he nodded with certainty. “After everything you’ve done for me, I owe you that much.”

“Kana, I want you to stay because you _want_ to, not because you feel you _have_ to.” Emiri dried her hand on her pants and picked at a hangnail.

“Emiri.” Kana waited until she looked at him and smiled. It was tired, still a little sad around the edges, but it was a smile. “I’m staying because I want to. To help a very good friend.”

“See, this is what I’m talking about,” she muttered, grinning. “You’re so sweet. Hence, cookies.” She gestured at the basket. “That I made myself, by the way.”

Kana examined the one in his hand. “Was that meant as a warning?”

Emiri scowled playfully at his teasing tone and poked his shoulder. “I _will_ push you into this fountain.”

He laughed. Gods, she’d missed his laugh, for the few days it had been absent.  “Please don’t. I’m sure they’re delicious. Thank you.”

“You’re welcome.” Emiri fidgeted with her bracelet for a moment, rubbing her thumb over the beads.

“Are you certain you didn’t need anything from me?” Kana asked as they both stood. Emiri might have a mild level of self-illumination, but as darkness fell it was still advisable to take their conversation indoors.

She matched his smile with one of her own. “I’m good.”

“One last question,” he began around a mouthful of cookie as they made their way inside Brighthollow. “Do I have to share?”

Emiri giggled and closed the door behind them. “Only if you want to. I made extra. Those are all yours.”

“Excellent.” Kana winked and handed her a cookie before heading for his room in a noticeably better mood.

 Emiri caught Edér watching from his own doorway and flashed him a victorious smile. _Mission accomplished. Thank you_. She tried not to think about the knowing twinkle in his eye as she made her way to her own room.


End file.
